Scotland's Music: Eddi Reader: Cavalier

Through music, through lyric, and through ideas, you can always count on Eddi Reader to lead a journey worth the taking. On her recording Cavalier that includes travels to ancient texts, a song that reminds of a 1940s ballroom, a song about fishing -- and so much more -- and many other pathways, byways, and excursions. Through it all Reader’s gorgeous voice and poetic choices guide a journey which makes a confident whole.

“Star light, star light, how long did it take you to get here tonight...” Reader sings in a song by Boo Hewerdine that will have you imagining a night sky filled with stars as much as it will have you thinking about how light -- from stars and otherwise -- passes by. There is a song in memory of hr former partner that is filled with image and story and poetry.

Do you remember the song Perfect? In the late 1980s when Reader sang with the group Fairground Attraction, it was their big hit. Reader still often sings it in concert. The song Wonderful, which is on this recording, draws from that same well of uplifting emotion with substance backed by a melody you will find yourself listening to and perhaps singing along with, as well. Reader and her husband John Douglas wrote it.

There are more gems in the sixteen tracks -- that song about fishing, for one. Go Wisely arose from Reader’s experiences as the parent of children who were becoming adults. Meg o’ the Glen is a lively re-imagining of an older text, something Reader does elsewhere on Cavalier. Take especial note of Pangur Ban, a story with words drawn directly from a medieval poem from Ireland, as a monk contemplated the similarities between the work he did hunting words and the work his cat did...hunting mice.

It’d hardly be an Eddi Reader recording without a reference to Robert Burns. She draws the music on Cavalier together, and to a close, with a quiet, conversational take on A Man’s a Man for A’ That. It, like all the songs on the album, invites more than one listen.

It is certainly Reader’s voice and vision which anchor the music. Reader and Douglas invited a number of musical friends along, however, to help them realize that vision. Among them are folk you’ve met here along the music road in the past, including John McCusker, Phil Cunningham, John Joe Kelly, Siobhan Miller, and Euan Burton.

Photograph of Eddi Reader at Celtic Connections by Kerry Dexter, made with permission. Thank you for respecting copyright.

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Singer, poet, Scotland: Eddi reader and Rober Burns
Scotand's music: Emily Smith: Echoes
Eddi Reader sings the songs of Robert Burns

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Songs of Hope 3

As we make our way through public and private conversation about immigration, environmental stewardship, and political change, there’s is music. Music to help with mulling these things over, to hearing these concerns as other generations have wrestled with them, to hear them as poets and musicians work with them. Continuing the series I’ve begun of songs of hope, here is a song that speaks to the troubles of race, one that considers, albeit a bit obliquely, environmental change, another that reframes the idea of refugees, and one that offers connection and friendship over the long haul struggle.

Give a listen to these; take your time with them. Go look up the albums on which they are recorded, too, and other work by these thoughtful artists, each of whom I’ve written about here at Music Road and elsewhere in my work. To borrow a line from one of Carrie Newcomer’s lyrics -- she is another artist whose work you should know -- “Light every candle that you can, we need some light to see...”

In her song Detroit Was Burning, Cathie Ryan moves from a child’s eye view to an adult’s reflection and remembrance of the riots in that Michigan city after mart Luther KIng was shot. She has recorded it on her album called Cathie Ryan.

Eddi Reader took a fragment of a Robert Burns song and made it into a story that is both a love song and a lament. Listen to that line about “they’re turning out all of the stars...” and others... This performance of the song Leezie Lindsay was recorded at the Celtic Connections Festival several years ago, and Emily Smith joins in on harmonies. The song is most readily available on the recent retrospective album Best of Eddi Reader.

Though you could call it a Christmas song -- Gretchen Peters has recorded on her Christmas album Northern Lights, after all -- the song Waitin’ on Mary has thought provoking words and images to offer about refugees. These resonate across seasons.

In this time of almost unending news that is awful, or at least difficult and challenging, it is wise to remember that it is a long road and many of us are walking it together. Rani Arbo and daisy mayhem offer a bit of hope and connection and wise words for the road with their song Shine On. It is recorded on their album Big Old Life.

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Eddi Reader sings more of the songs of Robert Burns
Some Bright Morning from Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem
Songs of Hope continued
Winter meditation

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Love Songs, Love Stories

Love: it is a source of endless reflection, conversation, story, at all times of the year. In the depths of winter love stories are often spun in form of song, shared and told and sung around and passed along again, as the lives and loves of those who handed them on to us join in from the shadows and as we add our own new love songs to the mix. Romantic love (it is near Valentine’s Day as I write) is an endless subject for musicians. They turn their thoughts to other aspects of love as well.

Mairead Ni Mhaoniagh grew up in Donegal, in the far northwest of the island of Ireland. One of her earliest music teachers there was her father Francie Mooney, himself an accomplished fiddler as well as a playwright and man who loved the sea. When her father died, two of Mairead’s friends wrote a song they hoped would help her. Named for a place on the far western edge of Donegal’s coast, it is called Far Beyond Carrickfinn. Mairead recorded it with Altan on their album called The Widening Gyre.

Eddi Reader is a native Scot. For many years though she lived and followed her career in music south of Hadrian’s Wall down in England. Her friend John Douglas -- now her husband -- thought she really belonged back in Scotland. One of the things he did to help her see this idea was write a song called Wild Mountainside. A love song to country and to woman both, you could say. Reader put the song on her album Songs of Robert Burns to show, she says, that great poetry and song are still flourishing in Scotland. It stands just fine in the company.

One snowy winter night, Carrie Newcomer was driving back to her home in Indiana after being away on tour. As she traveled she was taken by seeing lights in the windows of homes set back from the road, lights sent out by people she would never know and yet which lighted her path in more ways than one. She wrote a song drawing on where those thoughts led her called, unsurprisingly, A Light in the Window. Newcomer has recorded the song on her album called A Permeable Life.

Cathie Ryan gives a graceful and understated yet warm and welcoming voice to Rick Kemp's song of connection Somewhere Along the Road. She has recorded it on her album Somewhere Along the Road. A recognition of change and the continuing strength of connection.

Love songs for many situations and seasons....

Photographs by Kerry Dexter. Thank you for respecting copyright.

You may also wish to see
Cara Dillon: A Thousand Hearts
Cathie Ryan: Through Wind and Rain
Music and Mystery: Conversation with Carrie Newcomer

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Celtic Connections 2016: a taste of the festival

Celtic Connections, held in Glasgow in January each year, lights up Scotland’s winter with music from artists who connect to their heritage and carry that connection forward. This year artists from Africa, Mongolia, France, Canada, the United States, Ireland, and many other countries join musicians from all across Scotland for eighteen days of musical celebration, a celebration which includes concerts, master classes, talks, art exhibits, come and try workshops on a range of instruments, concerts for school children, late night sessions, the after hours festival club, live broadcasts and tapings of radio and television shows, concerts which feature rising stars...

Here is a bit of what things in Glasgow have looked like so far, The festival runs through 31 January.

At a concert by the Chieftains from Ireland, surprise guest Kris Kristofferson sang with Aylth McCormack. McCormack, who frequently collaborates with the Chieftains, is from Lewis in the Western Isles.

Brian Finnegan lent his talents on whistle to a concert with his musical friends Kathleen MacInnes, Dermot Byrne, and Mike Vass.

As part of the New Voices strand, with which Celtic Connections commissions new music, guitarist Ewan Robertson gave the world premier of his audio visual piece inspired by the Celtman triathalon and the landscapes and history the marathon’s route traverses in Scotland’s north.

Kyle Carey and Giilebride MacMillan offered sets of Gaelic Americana and Gaelic songs and then joined up to sing together at evening’s end.

Eddi Reader celebrated Burns night with a program in collaboration with the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra, in arrangements Rabbie himself would have found intriguing.

Photographs by Kerry Dexter. made with permission of the artists, the festival and the venues involved. Thank you for respecting copyright.

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Scotland, Americana, inspiration: Kyle Carey
Celtic Connections 2013: Images
Eddi Reader sings the songs of Robert Burns
Celtic Connections 2011: images

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Music, friendship, and the turning of the year

At the turning of the year, it is often a time for reflection, for thinking back and thinking forward. Though times may change and at times friends may come and go, still the value of friendship and the memories of times shared with good friends are keeping things.

Music to go along with thoughts on the subject of friendship:

As Eddi Reader points out in her introduction to this song, Robert Burns may be best known for his love songs. Burns wrote about quite a few subjects in his life though, and friendship is one. Take a listen to Eddi Reader with the lively song Willie Stewart, which she has recorded on her album Eddi Reader Sings the Songs of Robert Burns,

Whether for a short time or a long one, one thing that comes along with good friendship is parting and spending time apart. At times the mingled joy of realizing how much you love someone and sorrow at parting make that moment of leave taking the hardest part. That is captured in the song The Parting Glass. Cara Dillon songs it here. She has recorded it on her album Hill of Thieves and it also appears on the collection Celtic Cafe from Putumayo Music.

Carrie Newcomer explores another of the many aspects that friendship may take in her song The Gathering of Spirits recognizing that there is mystery in it as well as, perhaps as part of, love and lasting connection. One of my favorite lines is “... and we’ll take up where we left off when we all meet again.” Newcomer chose The Gathering of Spirits as the title of one of her albums, and the song also appears on Betty's Diner: The Best of Carrie Newcomer

To close this meditation on music and friendship I’ll send you back again to Eddi Reader and back again to Robert Burns, with a song that, among other things, connects people the world around at New Year’s time. Take a listen to Reader’s reflective take on the song, which she has recorded on Eddi Reader Sings the Songs of Robert Burns.

Photograph by Kerry Dexter. Thank you for respecting copyright.

You may also wish to see
Emily Smith, Jamie McClennan, and Robert Burns
Eddi Reader sings more of the songs of Robert Burns
Cathie Ryan: Through Wind and Rain
Celtic Cafe at Wandering Educators

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Music and quiet

Silence: the exterior sort is often inspiration for creative work, and the interior sort is that, too, and is also part of creation itself

So it might seem a paradox that music is very often a gateway to silence. However, when you think about it, really think about and feel music -- and especially if you are a musician yourself -- you’ll come to know that music arises out of silence. It’s not just, hey, we begin! music is, if it’s really good, continuing of and sharing of the inspiration and conversation that begin with that interior quiet. That’s a thought which sounds like another paradox even as I write it, but that makes it no less true.

That idea of creativity arises from silence -- sometimes long quiet, sometimes just the beat of a breath between observation and connection -- works with other sorts of creativity, as well. The dancer in the moment before the dance, the chef at the moment of connecing ideas are also there in that silence. As I write this it is National Poetry Month in the US, so I invite you to think about how this might apply in that area. A recent trip to spend time with the paintings of the Glasgow Boys at Kelvingrove in Glasgow had me reflecting on how this works with visual art as well, especially, for example, the two very different paintings of the Victorian scene in Stirling Station and the evocation of druids in Bringing in the Mistletoe.

Musicians paint their pictures on silence, as the saying goes.

Music to go along with these ideas

Cathie Ryan: The Farthest Wave
Kathy Mattea: Calling Me Home
Hanneke Cassel: For Reasons Unseen

and this Eddi Reader: Wild Mountainside

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Music, meditation, creation
Cathie Ryan: teaching tradition
music, silence, and spiritual journey

Photograph of a wild mountainside in Ireland is by Kerry Dexter, and is copyrighted. Thank you for respecting this.

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music of love

Love is the substance of all music, when you stop to think about it. Songs of love gone wrong and gone right in all sorts of ways, love for land, home, country, family, children, friends, love of tradition and family that keeps the music going on, and music that may not speak directly of these things but is brought into being by them. As I write this it is a time of year when love is celebrated especially. Here’s music to go along with celebrating all these sorts of love.

Romantic love is the substance of Someone Like You, sung by award winning country, folk, and Americana artist Emmylou Harris. A few of my favorite lines are
I never wasted a minute of my time
Every road I ever took led me to your side

Robert Burns, Scotland’s bard, wrote of aspects of love from romantic to bawdy to friendship. John Anderson My Jo finds the poet considering love that lasts across the years. Fellow Scot Eddi Reader does a fine and thoughtful job with it

Love between parents and children is the subject of December Child from Gretchen Peters and Mo Níon Ó from Cathie Ryan

Celebration of the many gifts of friendship is what Carrie Newcomer considers in The Gathering of Spirits
there’s a gathering of spirits
there’s a festival of friends
and we’ll take up where we left off
when we all meet again

Sharing love for land and home place is well told in At the Heart of It All from Capercaillie.
At the heart of it all
Is a calling to this land...

At times, love is shown with no words at at all. Molly Mason’s composition The Snowstorm is music of that sort I especially commend to you.

Blessing is a deep form of love, and so I will draw this to a close by suggesting that you take a listen to Cathie Ryan’s choice of a song of blessing, May the Road Rise to Meet You

Each of these artists well knows how to write and to interpret all sorts of love songs, so I commend to you the albums on which this music appears, and their other works, as well. At this season of love, also, I wish you love, joy, and peace -- and great music..

Did you notice the heart in the photograph? I saw it in the reflection whilst at a gig at the Piping Centre in Glasgow, Scotland. This photograph is copyrighted, and I thank you for respecting this.

you may also wish to see
music and mystery
Cathie Ryan: Through Wind and Rain

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Thinking about songs: Eddi Reader and Moon River

Eddi Reader is a Scot, a native of Glasgow. Though she first rose to wide acclaim as the singer with the pop group Fairground Attraction while living in London, she eventually decided the land north of Hadrian’s Wall was calling her home.

There, Reader has found success both with writing her own music and in interpreting the songs of contemporary writers as well as those of Robert Burns. I’ve had the good fortune to interview her twice.

One of the points she made during those conversations was that she’s always thought of herself as a folk singer: she’s never lost that approach to seeking out and creating music that connects and really has something to say, holding this to be equally true through her days in London and her presenting of the songs of Robert Burns with orchestras.

That is one reason I was intrigued to come across this video of Eddi Reader singing Moon River. Sounds like it could be part of the folk tradition to me, just as at home in that place as it is on Broadway and in film.

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eddi reader, willie stewart, and the search for haggis

Julie Fowlis:Uam

Eddi Reader sings more of the songs of Robert Burns

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Three songs for Valentine's Day

Loving hearts, seeking hearts, hurting hearts, hearts wide open, hearts reconciled, hearts and flowers: it’s Valentine season. Three songs to listen to as you prepare and enjoy your celebrations:

Scotland’s national bard, Robert Burns, wrote dozens and dozens of songs about love, funny, bawdy, serious, heartfelt. Eddi Reader has recorded many of them including Ae Fond Kiss. My Love is Like a Red Red Rose, and John Anderson My Jo. Good ones all. On her album Eddi Reader sings more of the songs of Robert Burns she also chose to record a contemporary song, Wild Mountainside, by John Douglas.

It’s a fine look at longing, change, trust, and homecoming. all framed it touches of the Scottish landscape. It will work to illuminate love whatever landscape happens to be your place at the moment.


Cathie Ryan draws in images of nature and weather in her song What’s Closest to the Heart, as well, framing a journey of trust, questions, and acceptance in swirling melody driven by John Doyle’s guitar and laced by John McCusker’s fiddle. It is a song that may have you tapping your feet even as you consider the images and questions in English and Irish that Ryan offers. A fine and perhaps a bit unexpected companion to the season of hearts and flowers, you’ll find the song on Ryan's album The Farthest Wave.


Indiana based songwriter Carrie Newcomer looks at love, trust, connection, and staying true in her song Hush. It’s a reflective piece which takes a quiet look at the strength of love beyond the first days of romance - as indeed do Ryan’s and Reader’s songs as well. You will find Hush on Newcomer’s album
Before & After.





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eddi reader, willie stewart, and the search for haggis
Lovers' Well: Matt & Shannon Heaton

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Scott-Land at Celtic Connections

Ivanhoe, Lady of the Lake, Rob Roy, The Bride of Lammermoor -- even if you’ve never read any of these, they have very likely influenced your view of Scotland and its history. Sir Walter Scott wrote all of them. His cinematic descriptions of Scottish landscapes have caused him to be called Scotland’s first travel writer. His novels, poems and plays were wildly popular when they were written in the early nineteenth century -- at one point during that time his novels were said to be the most read books in the United States. They are still read today.

Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park is the landscape Scott drew on for Lady of the Lake. As part of the park’s celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of the poem, composer Phil Cunningham wrote a new instrumental work, The Trossachs Suite.

It’s always a challenge to write instrumental music about something, to create music that is neither too literal nor too abstract. Cunningham did this very well, drawing on his deep connection with traditional music as well as touches of classical influence. As the program had its first performance at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall during Celtic Connections, the six sections of music were interspersed with readings from Scott’s work by actor Bill Paterson. Cunningham, on accordion, was well assisted by band members including Michael McGoldrick on flutes and whistles, Kathleen Boyle on piano and keyboards, Ian Carr and John Doyle on guitar, Martin O’Neill on bodhran, and Fiona Johnson and John McCusker on fiddle.

The Trossachs Suite was the first half of the evening in Glasgow. For the second half, singers Karen Matheson and Eddi Reader joined in to offer songs written by Scott, and ones, as Cunningham said, “we think he would have liked, and ones that we like!”

It proved a stellar selection and a varied one as well, with Reader starting things off with with Jock O’ Hazeldean, and Matheson continuing with McGregor’s Gathering. The two then joined together for what at first might seem an unexpected choice, Schubert’s setting for the hymn Ave Maria. It was, in fact, Schubert’s reading about the song in Lady of the Lake which inspired the composition, and two of the best voices in Scotland had the audience in cheers and in tears as they ended the piece. Wild Mountainsde, a contemporary piece on homecoming and choices and a Reader favourite, was also on the program, and Matheson brought her Gaelic background with Ailein Duinn. The two singers joined forces for a lively set of Puirt a Buel to conclude the music -- almost.. Things finished off with an encore of all on stage and in the audience joining in singing Loch Lomond.


You have to think that Walter Scott would’ve enjoyed the evening.



photographs are copyrighted. thank you for respecting this.


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If you like the idea of books which inspire travel, check out what’s happening over at A Traveler’s Library. We’ve been suggesting music ideas to go along with the Library’s choices for book and film on The Great American Road Trip -- there are still a few states to go -- and you will find books and film ideas for places from Iraq to South Dakota to Normandy, and thought provoking conversations about them, at A Traveler’s Library as well.


Music Road: Music for St Andrew's Day: music of Scotland
Music Road: Eddi Reader, Emily Smith, Robert Burns

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celebrating Robert Burns

Around the world, people are gathering to celebrate the life and work of Scottish poet Robert Burns, most especially on Burns night on 25 January. There will toasts to the haggis, toasts to the lassies, and replies from those lassies as well, all in honor and remembrance of the ploughman poet. His gift for words and rhythm, supported his keen eye for romance, social justice, and humor, and his love for the landscape of Scotland all show up in his work. Charlie Is My Darlin’, Auld Lang Syne, My Love is Like a Red Red Rose, a Man’s a Man for A’ That, all of these are written by Robert Burns, and they are but a few of the hundreds of poems and songs her wrote and collected.

Many musicians have recorded his music. To note especially are Emily Smith and Jamie McClennan,
Eddi Reader, and Jim Malcolm.

Several of my favorite songs written by Robert Burns are John Anderson My Jo, The Westin Winds, Commend Me to The Plooman, Silver Tassie, and this one, below. Tell us some of yours in the comments, if you’d like.




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about the book of memories and photographs Touched by Robert Burns

Julie Fowlis:Uam

Uam means from me in Scottish Gaelic. That is what you hear on this recording, a very distinct point of view. Julie Fowlis is a Scot who grew up in North Uist in the Outer Hebrides. She’s also an artist, musician, and thinker completely of the twenty first century.

The music she offers here is rooted and grounded in the old songs she learnt from tradition bearers while she was growing up. It is also rooted and grounded in that tradition spoken with taste and affection in a contemporary voice. Thig am bata (The boat will come) is a fast paced song with a strong but challenging beat, which she invited bodhran player Martin O’Neill to explore with her. On an old milking song, she’s joined by fellow Hebridean Mary Smith of Lewis for the singing and Phil Cunningham provides piano and accordion backing. That aforementioned song about the boat coming is a sort of murder ballad from the Hebrides. Fowlis pairs it with a like story which made its way from Ireland into American folk tradition where it is known and Wind and Rain. Fowlis and top notch Scottish singer Eddi Reader trade verses in Scottish Gaelic and English in a way which really illuminates the story of the song.

A Chiad Cheum (The First Step) is a lovely tune Fowlis and her husband, bouzouki player Eamon Doorley, composed for the wedding of a cousin. It allows the talents of Fowlis and Doorley’s frequent musical compatriots fiddler Duncan Chisholm, guitarist Tony Byrne, and bass player Ewan Vernal to come especially clear, and the two of them join in on whistle and bouzouki, respectively, as well. When Fowlis and Doorley played a festival in another Celtic area, Brittany in France, there they were asked to do a Breton song. Translated from Breton into Scottish Gaelic, the one they chose fits well in place in this collection. The title in comes over to English as I was born in the midst of the sea, an idea anyone from the western isles could easily appreciate.

There are sad songs and lively songs, ballads and working songs, songs which spring directly from the Hebrides and songs with touches of other traditions. Whether you understand Scottish Gaelic or not (there are English translations in the liner notes if you do not), you hear the sea, the land, the lives and loves of people in the songs, the wind and the weather. You hear Scotland, through the music of a gifted and original musician who is choosing to apply her gifts in service of traditional music and language.

Side note: should you have the chance to see Fowlis and her musical friends play live, take it. It is an engaging experience not to be missed. . Another side note: apologies to Gaelic speakers: this keyboard does not handle fadas well.



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Dual: Julie Fowlis & Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh
Music Road: season of change: music for autumn

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Music for St Andrew's Day: music of Scotland

Saint Andrew’s Day, November 30th, is a holiday that’s close to home for every Scot, at home and abroad, and even more so in this year of Homecoming Scotland. There are concerts, light shows, and celebrations of all sorts, and a general throwing wide the doors to the winter holidays. From the northern isles to the western ones, from Lerwick to Galloway and Oban to Aberdeen, it’s a time of festivity. If you’d like music to go along -- or perhaps delight the Scots on your Christmas list -- here are several ideas.

Capercaillie Roses and Tears

Capercaille is one of the best loved and indeed most musically adventurous of Scottish bands. They've taken their musical tastes all across the world, For this recording, though, they bring things back home, focusing on music in English and Scots Gaelic that holds close to the Atlantic fringe where most of the band members grew up. Outstanding instrumental tracks from the band and fine vocals from Karen Matheson show the group in top form. Notable cuts include the Gaelic groove of Him Bo and the anti war song Don’t You Go.

Lauren MacColl Strewn With Ribbons

Fiddler Lauren MacColl has a sure touch and a distinctive tone, and she’s a flair for graceful composition and song selection, as well. Here she draws from music collected and composed by four musicians from her native Ross-shire area, mixed with her own pieces. It’s a fine work in which you can almost hear the voices of the hills. Barry Reid on guitar and Mhairi Hall on piano, who usually work with MacColl in concert, add to the music with their creative support for MacColl’s fiddle lines.

Eddi Reader Sings The Songs Of Robert Burns

Indeed she does. Reader has said that she wanted to present Burns conversationally, as things might be if you happened into a pub in his times. She has done that, and offers the songs in such a way that they are conversational to today as well. There’s one non Burns song, Wild Mountainside by John Douglas, which is a real standout its own. There’s an extended version of the recording with tracks collected from other projects, which is worth seeking out, but the original release stands fine on its own as well.

Julie Fowlis, Eamon Doorley, Ross Martin, and Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh
Dual

Astute readers will note that this appears on my suggestions for Irish music for your holiday gift list, as well. That’s because it’s an exploration of the connections and intersections of songs in irish and Scots Gaelic. It’s a very fine project, one you’ll be well able to enjoy whether you understand a word of either language ot not.
more about that here

Jim Malcolm First Cold Day

Not for nothing has Perthshire native Jim Malcolm been given top honors in Scotland as both singer and songwriter. He’s also a fine song picker too, as for example with the first track on the collection, The Valley of Strathmore, a reflective, haunting ballad of regret by Andy M Stewart. The original An Hour in the Gloaming is a tribute to Robert Burns and to the joys of fishing that you have to be neither a fisherperson nor a poet to enjoy. Down in Alabam is a funny take on some of the food Malcolm has encountered on his travels in the southern United States, while Schiehallion grew out of a project he did with Perthshire School children.

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Emily Smith: Too Long Away

season of change: music for autumn

malinky: flower & iron

Eddi Reader, Emily Smith, Robert Burns

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Perthshire Amber in the highlands of Scotland, and online

Perthshire Amber is the evocative name of a festival of music that begins on 30 October this year, and runs for ten days. Dougie MacLean, from Dunkeld in the heart of highland Perthshire, started the festival as a day long one off event several years ago. MacLean is a master composer, songwriter, and player, with musical friends the world over, so that idea soon became a festival. This year, performers will include Irish born singer Heidi Talbot, Scottish star Eddi Reader, the always lively band Malinky, highland fiddler and composer Duncan Chisholm, and many others. Venues will include a cathedral, a castle, a crannog -- and your computer. For the first time, this year the festival is offering live streaming of concerts as well as on demand interviews and other video features, for a one off fee which will allow a month's access to all the material. Dougie MacLean is an internationally renowned songwriter, who began his career with the traditional band The Tannahill Weavers and soon set out on solo work. He is composer of the song Caledonia, which has become the unofficial anthem of Scots everywhere and was used in the advertisement promoting Homecoming Scotland this year. Its lyrics have even found their way on to T-shirts and whisky bottles. MacLean’s music was also used in the film The Last of the Mohicans, and he has an extensive catalog of songs. In fact, that’s one of the reasons the whole thing got started. “There are many of my songs that I don’t get to play often, when I only have two hours at a concert,” he says. This year he’ll be appearing across the ten days. The Festival kicks off with Dougie and Eddie Reader at Pitlochry Festival Theatre and finishes with a gala concert at Perth Concert Hall. “We are delighted with this year’s line up for what looks to be the biggest and best Perthshire Amber yet.” MacLean says. “Our biggest step is that we are going to hold a major concert in Perth for the first time. The Caledonia Concert will feature wonderful musicians from five different countries who I have had a connection with over the years. I have been lucky enough to have had my songs recorded by some amazing artists and friends. The Caledonia Concert will feature some of these musicians. “Perthshire Amber 2009 is one of the featured Homecoming Scotland events and the Caledonia Concert will be our key Homecoming contribution. I’m really looking forward to our Perth Concert Hall festival finale! “I’m also looking forward to playing the Indigenous album live for the first time,” he continued. ”Our live versions of The Search in the past two years have been real Festival highlights.” Frances Black and the band Beoga are two who’ll bring an Irish touch to the festival, as will Kildare born Heidi Talbot, now based in Edinburgh. Talbot is known for her stint as lead singer with the top traditional band Cherish the Ladies, and she’s recently been backing up Eddi Reader on tour as well as selling out her own concerts in her native country. She’ll be giving a concert at the castle at Blair Atholl. It’s Talbot’s first time at Perthshire Amber. “I'm really looking forward to the festival. I'm a huge Dougie MacLean fan and I'm really chuffed to be a part of his festival. It's being held in a gorgeous part of the country too. I can't wait!” she says. There will also be a musical bus tour of highland Perthshire featuring stories and songs from the always engaging Doris Rougvie, as well as workshops, talks, and sessions across the ten days. Festival goers will have a chance to give back, as well, by joining in Amber Harvest through bringing canned and boxed foodstuffs to be given to groups which aid Scotland’s homeless and others needing assistance, and by bidding on a blanket - possibly more than one -- that knitters around the world have contributed to in a project called The Big Knit. The proceeds of the blanket auction will also go to help those needing food and shelter. you may also wish to see the festival web site Perthshire Amber Live! where you may learn about how to sign up for online viewing of the festival Music Road: heidi talbot: in love +light Homecoming Scotland: Caledonia Music Road: Eddi Reader, Emily Smith, Robert Burns Music Road: season of change: music for autumn where you may learn about recent music from Doris Rougvie, Duncan Chisholm, and others

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Julie Fowlis: the making of the album Uam

Julie Fowlis faces an interesting situation when she’s giving concerts -- most of the time, even in her native Scotland, people don’t understand the language in which she sings. Not that she doesn’t like to sing in English or work with artists on projects in other languages, too “but this is just what I feel drawn to, the songs from home. When I’m singing for myself, that’s what I like to sing,” she says.

Home for Fowlis is North Uist in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides, where she grew up listening as much to tradition bearers singing in Scots Gaelic as she did songs that topped the UK charts. She left the island to study classical music, but “once I finished my degree course, there just seemed to be more opportunities for me along traditional paths,” she says. Indeed there were, first as a whistle and pipe player and sometime singer with the group Dochas and then with a solo career. Last year, she was named Scotland’s first ambassador for Gaelic in recognition for her work bringing wider attention to the language, and she’s won many awards for her music.

Her third album is called Uam,
which means from me in Gaelic. Eddi Reader and Jerry Douglas are among the guests sitting in as Fowlis and her core road band add songs from Breton and Irish American tradition to their program. Here is a short film about the making of Uam.



you may also wish to see
Julie's most recent album Julie Fowlis: Every Story
Dual: Julie Fowlis & Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh
Dochas: An Darna Umhail/ A Second Glance

photograph of Julie Fowlis at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall by Kerry Dexter. Thank you for respecting copyright.

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Photographing music, again

Continuing on the exploration of music into images. Listen for the music in the silence.

Photographs from gigs in Glasgow, Cambridge, Austin, Nashville.



































check out other photo blogs at Delicious Baby's Photo Friday


you may also want to see

Music Road: ceol chairlinn: sharing music in winter

Music Road: Celtic Connections 2009: images, continued

-->If you'd like to support my creative work,
here is a way to do that, through PayPal. Note that you do not have to have a PayPal account to do this.Thank you.

Music for a summer road trip

It may be August, but one of the albums that’s catching my ear a good bit these days is one whose songs are framed in ideas of winter.

Gretchen Peters’ Northern Lights offers a mix of traditional traditional holiday carols and newer songs. It's a set which includes In the Bleak Mid Winter alongside John Jacob Niles’ Appalachian based song I Wonder As I Wander and Peters’ own looking across the centuries and thinking about faith and connections song Waitin’ on Mary. Whatever the season, it’s a good listen. You might also want to know that Peters is doing live concert in Nashville which will be streamed on the web, tomorrow, Saturday 8 August. There’s more about that at her website. Peters is also talking about song writing in a tele class later this month -- click on the banner on the right hand sidebar calle Art of Song for more on that.



There is a lot of excellent new music on my desk, including CDs from Claire Lynch, Rhonda Vincent, a middle eastern family band from Indiana, new Native American recordings, The Pride of New York [a n Irish American super group which includes Joanie Madden and Brendan Dolan], Sara Milonovich, and others. You’ll get to hear about all of that in the coming days. Right now, though, in addition to Peters, I’m drawn to the work of these artists whom you 've met before along the music road:

Eddi Reader and Emily Smith are both Scotswomen with excellent and very different sorts of song writing styles. The link will take you to a video of them singing together at Celtic Connections last winter.

Carrie Newcomer is working on recording a new album just now, and preparing for a trip to India. The Geography of Light is the one of her albums I am listening to most often this summer, especially the songs There is a Tree, about, roughly speaking, what it is and is not like to be an artist and a person of faith, and The Clean Edge of Change and Map of Shadows, both about change. If you’ve ever thought you’ve ad a little too much of e mail you’ll also appreciate her funny take on that in Don’t Push Send.


There’s a gently funny song on Fine Winter's Night, too, called Julius the Christmas Cat. Ever wondered why there are no cats in famous paintings of the Nativity? Matt and Shannon Heaton give you the clue in this song, and yes, it’s another winter album. You can play them any time of year, you know. Try it, if you’ve not. The Heatons’ recording Lovers’ Well is also claiming my attention this summer. You’ll hear more about that coming up along the music road, but meanwhile, here’s a taste of what it’s about in a guest post I did for Irish Fireside, along with bits about two other excellent Irish albums you’ll like to know too.





you may also want to see

a preview of the Milwaukee Irish Fest, coming up next weekend, at Wandering Educators

Music Road: ten songs

Music Road: music for a spring road trip: six albums

If you enjoy what you’ve been reading here, a way to support it:

Saturday Sessions: Eddi Reader on writing melodies

Scottish singer and songwriter Eddi Reader is known for her own songwriting, and for her contemporary interpretations of Robert Burns. Though the power of words is very present in her work, when she’s working on a song, melody where it starts for her.

“There’ll be a melody sense. I’ll mess around with it, I’ve got this acoustic guitar, and you have to have an instrument. For me. I could just walk about making up melodies with my voice, but when I have a guitar, I know hoe it has to work. It’s a bit like knitting or crocheting, and I have to really remember where I’m putting my fingers. So what happens is I tend to come upon a note or a chord set that leads me to something that’s really melodically juicy. I just let this juicy little melody mess around in my head, but it doesn’t belong to any words yet. I’m pretty lazy and a bit shy about all that. Pinning it down feels like finishing, and I find it hard to commit to anything that includes a deadline or a time -- unless of course I really like the words!” she says.

Stay tuned for more Saturday sessions, thought provoking ideas about teaching, learning, and creating music from musicians including Matt Heaton, Del Suggs, Emily Smith, Gretchen Peters, and others.


you may also want to see
Saturday Sessions: Del Suggs on teaching

Eddi Reader, Emily Smith, Robert Burns

Eddi reader, Willie Stewart, and the search for haggis
Eddi's album Light is in the Horizonf: story at Music Road

If you enjoy what you’ve been reading here, a way to support more of it:

Eddi Reader, Emily Smith, Robert Burns

Come along the music road for trip to Scotland for a bit of a live show that's a study in songwriting and harmony singing as well. Eddi Reader sings Leezie Lindsay, a song she and Boo Hewerdine made from a fragment of a Robert Burns song. Emily Smith joins on harmony, and you may see a few familiar faces in the backing band too. From a celebration of the 250th anniversary of Robert Burns' birth, January 2009 at the Royal Glasgow Concert Hall during Celtic Connections.




you may also want to see
Eddi Reader sings more of the songs of Robert Burns

Emily Smith:Too Long Away

Music Road: words, music, and poetry

also, stay tuned here along the music road for news of other music events in Glasgow, and more from Celtic Connections

-->If you'd like to support my creative work at Music Road and elsewhere,
here is a way to do that, through PayPal. Note that you do not have to have a PayPal account to do this.Thank you.

15 blogs to explore, and a blog award

A classical violinist, three chefs, a reporter who has made freelancing in the digital age her beat, an essayist who writes about cooking, gardening, and India, an Irish American musician who thinks in metaphor, two Scottish songwriters -- and a partridge in a pear tree? Well, not exactly. Vera Marie Badertscher, who writes the blog A Traveler’s Library, recently honored Music Road with an award as ‘A Lovely Blog.’ Turns out this is a bit of a tag team event -- if you are given such an award, one of the conditions is that you then pass along the recognition to recently discovered blogs you enjoy. Some of these aren’t exactly new discoveries for me, and a few of them stretch the definition of blog a bit, but they are each worth checking out.

Leap Little Frog is an occasional series of thought provoking musings, sometimes funny, sometimes reflective, sometimes poetic, and sometimes all those at once, by Irish American musician Shannon Heaton

Hilary Hahn: journal Hilary Hahn travels the world as a classical violinist. Look in on what she thinks about music, life, and the places she visits.

Blog: Speaking of Faith Speaking of Faith is, to borrow from their tagline, public radio’s conversation about religion and why it matters. In the blog, the show's producers, staff, and the host, Krista Tippett, talk about what goes on behind the scenes, how they make their decisions, and other ideas related to what they learn while working on the show.

Mary Pat Kelly is the author of the book Galway Bay,
a novel based on her family’s history. Here she writes about what she’s learning and experiencing while promoting the book.

Joel Carillet photography and thoughts from travel writer Joel Carillet, about his journeys in southeast Asia, the middle east, and elsewhere.

Word Count: freelancing in the digital age Michelle Rafter is a west coast based reporter who makes the intersection of reporting and electronic media her beat -- how freelancers work in this world, what they think about it, what’s going on now, what might be next.

Laurie Niles at Violinist Laurie Niles is also a journalist, and a classical violinist. She reports on and thinks about the world of music and music education through those perspectives

A Life Divided Sue Dickman lives in western Massachusetts, when she’s not in India. She writes about both those places, along with cooking, gardening, and other subjects.

A Year in Bread Farmgirl Susan, Kevin Weeks, and The KitchenMage trade recipes, tips, and ideas about all sorts of baking.

Emily Smith, a singer and songwriter and accordion player from Dumfriesshire in Scotland, writes about her life and music career with insight and humor at this blog on her myspace page

Flyover America travel writers Jenna Schnuer and Sophia Dembling trade observations and insights from their travels through the US between the coasts

About Last Night Terry Teachout writes about the arts, mostly but not always drama, mostly but not always in New York City

The Artful Manager Andrew Taylor writes about the business of the arts

Eddi Reader is a folk based muscian whose work has ranged from rock to Robert Burns. At the blog on her myspace page, she shares news about her music and gigs as well as thoughts about life which are often funny, offbeat, and poetic. not unlike her music.

IrishBlogs.ie is actually a blog aggregator -- ‘what Ireland is talking about today’ is one of its taglines. well, maybe not -- except when they feature Music Road, of course. still, varied views on all sorts of topics from the Emerald Isle including a section about Irish people on Twitter, and a section of blogs as Gaelige


you may also want to see

here's Badertscher’s list

Music Road: Reflections: five of the best